Books I love:
UNSONG
Scholomance books by Naomi Novik
The Way of Kings
The Lies of Locke Lamora
City of Stairs
Jade City
The Martian
A Closed and Common Orbit
A Story of Your Life
The Name of the Wind
Children of time
Books I like:
Exhalation
I hope I can give multiple bounties. Unsure how this works, so let's see.
Some ideas:
1. “Mistborn” by Brandon Sanderson - Epic fantasy with unique magic systems.
2. “Worm” by Wildbow - Web serial, dark superhero universe.
3. “Perdido Street Station” by China Miéville - New Weird, dense urban fantasy.
4. “Good Omens” by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett - Humorous take on the apocalypse.
5. “Red Rising” by Pierce Brown - Sci-fi, social hierarchy, rebellion.
Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World
The Sinner and the Saint: Dostoevsky and the Gentleman Murderer Who Inspired a Masterpiece
Persepolis: The story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution
Fine Structure, by qntm.
Fledgling physicist Ching-Yu Kuang has discovered a Rosetta Stone for all of physics, a treasure trove of advanced scientific breakthroughs beyond all imagination. Exotic energy, teleportation, FTL, parallel universes and near-infinitely more wonders are just within reach; a promise of paradise.
But every attempt to exploit this new science results in sabotage, chaos and destruction. And the laws of science themselves are changing with each experiment, locking out the new discoveries, directly altering the universe to make what should be possible impossible. While Ching watches, humanity's future is being stolen.
Because there's something wrong with his world. There's a fundamental flaw, a defect in its structure...
Two I loved:
1. Mother of Learning -> Fantasy with a rational main character stuck in a groundhog day loop. Does many novel things within the groundhog day framework, like having actual stakes and an adversary in the same loop. (Early mild spoiler)
2. Cradle Series -> Probably my favorite fictional series (12 books that I absolutely flew through). Fantasy but also Sci-fi, things expand by the end of book 1. Active protagonists that actually act to their own ends.
"Children of TIme" series (and a lot of Adrian Tchaikovsky's other books, the "Expert System" series is probably the next step)
"Exhalation: Stories" (and all the rest of Ted Chiang's short stories if you haven't already read them)
"The Paper Menagerie" - Ken Liu (somewhat similar to Ted Chiang's, TPM, State Change and All The Flavours are my favourites)